Want Innovation? Then Use Cultural Artifacts that Support It

Today, most companies are seeking to become more innovative. One of the major ingredients in achieving increased levels of innovation is aligning the organization's cultural artifacts with its innovation effort. Managing a culture is important to strategic management and to implementing change, but the focus of culture management is usually limited to values. Companies such as Corning Inc and 3M Co. consistently employ at least four other powerful cultural artifacts - myths and sagas; language systems and metaphors; symbols, ceremonies and rituals; and identifiable value systems and behavioral norms - when seeking increased innovation. While using these artifacts does not guarantee more innovation, not using them almost certainly guarantees failure to achieve increased innovation. Innovation is one of 3M's core values, if not the core value for achieving strategic success. Art Fry's eventual success with Post-It-Notes falls under the myths and sagas cultural artifact.